What is the tactic persecutors have used against believers down through the ages?
Persecutors have used the tactic of forcing believers to make a choice: blaspheme Jesus Christ, renege on Him, recant faith in Him, or be put to death. This ploy appears down through the ages, compelling believers to turn against Christ under threat of execution.
Les explains that this has been the ploy of persecutors down through the ages: force people to make a choice—blaspheme Jesus Christ, renege on Him, recant faith in Him, or be put to death. In Saul of Tarsus's case, he voted against believers when they were brought before religious leaders, punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme. He put his fellow Jews into the same position, demanding they blaspheme the name of Jesus, hate Him as he did, or be put to death. Later, when he found out the one he persecuted was his Old Testament Jehovah, it beat him down, and he never could quite get over it. He sorrowed over persecuting these Jewish believers and called himself the least of the apostles because he persecuted the church, the assembly of God at Jerusalem.
And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.